FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 illustrate a constitution of an indoor unit of an air conditioner according to a related art. Referring to the drawings, a casing 1 forms an exterior of an indoor unit.
The casing 1 has a flat-rectangular shape so that each length of top/bottom and right/left is relatively greater than a width of front/rear.
An intake part 3 is formed at a front face of the casing 1 so s to become a path through which an air in an air-conditioned space is sucked inside the casing 1.
A heat exchanger 5 is installed at a rear side of the intake part 3. The heat exchanger 5 exchanges heat between a refrigerant of a heat exchange cycle and the air sucked in through the intake part 3 in the air-conditioned space.
Such a heat exchanger 5 has a rectangular shape so as to correspond to the intake part 3 in size.
An air vent 6 is formed at a center of the heat exchanger 5 so as to prevent interference between a motor 7 and a turbofan 9 which will be explained in the following.
A motor 7 is installed at an inner rear side of the casing 1.
A rotating shaft of the motor 7 is installed in a direction facing from a rear side to a front side of the casing 1, and a turbofan 9 is installed at the rotating shaft. The turbofan 9 is a part providing a motive power for a flow of air inside the indoor unit. The turbofan 9 sucks an air in a direction of the rotating shaft from the front side, and then blows the sucked air in a centrifugal direction.
Blow outlets 11 are formed at upper, lower, left, and right sides of the casing 1 so as to blow the air blown by the turbofan 9 into the air-conditioned space.
Blow outlet vanes 13 are formed at the blow outlets 11 so as to adjust directions of the air blown from the blow outlets 11, respectively.
Meanwhile, an orifice 15 is installed between the heat exchanger 5 and turbofan 9, whereby an orifice hole is formed at a center of the orifice 15 so as to guide the air having passed the heat exchanger 5 to the turbofan 9.
Operation of the above-constituted indoor unit of the air conditioner according to the related art is explained as follows.
Once the air conditioner is driven, the heat exchange cycle starts to operate so that the refrigerant, which is relatively cold, is transferred to the heat exchanger 5.
And, the turbofan 9 revolves by the motor 7 so as to suck the air in the air-conditioned space.
Namely, the turbofan 9 revolves so that the air in the air-conditioned space is sucked inside the casing 1 through the intake part 3.
Moreover, the air sucked through the intake part 3 undergoes heat-exchange through the heat exchanger 5 so as to become a chilly air having a relatively low temperature.
The chilly air generated from the heat exchanger 5 is sucked in the turbofan 9 so as to be blown in the centrifugal direction of the turbofan 9.
The air blown from the turbofan 9 is blown into the air-conditioned space through the blow outlets 11 formed at the upper, lower, left, and right sides of the casing 1.
In this case, the blow outlet vanes 13 of the blow outlets 11 become open so as to adjust the blow directions of the chilly air which is being blown, respectively.
Yet, the indoor unit of the air conditioner according to the related art has the following problems.
First of all, there are four blow outlets 11 formed at the upper, lower, left, and right sides of the casing 1 in the indoor unit according to the related art, whereby the chilly air is blown in four directions.
Yet, a relatively cold air becomes distributed at a lower side as a characteristic of airflow in general.
Hence, the chilly air blown through the blow outlet 11 formed at the upper side of the casing 1 becomes to sink toward the front side of the casing 1 so as to be sucked inside the indoor unit again through the intake part 3.
Thus, an efficiency of the air conditioner is reduced.
Moreover, the airflow, which is constituted in a manner that the air blown in an upper direction of the casing 1 is sucked again in the intake part 3, interrupts an entire air conditioning in a room so as to being about a design failure. And, a temperature of the air sucked through the intake part 3 becomes lower than a real temperature in the room so that the air conditioner fails to attain a precise data. Hence, the entire room is unable to be air-conditioned promptly.
And, the intake part 3 is always open regardless of any operation status of the air conditioner.
Namely, a predetermined portion of the intake part 3 should be open so as not only to let the air pass through but to prevent a user's hand or other thing from being inserted therein. Such a predetermined portion maintains to be open all the time. Hence, dusts or particles in the room come into penetrating the intake part 3.
Thus, a filter (not shown in the drawing) installed between the intake part 3 and heat exchanger 5 should be cleaned more often.
Besides, the opened intake part 3 provides a bad impression in aesthetic appearance.
Moreover, it is difficult to attach/detach the filter of the related art. Namely, in order to exchange the filter, an intake grill (not shown in the drawing) should be separated from the indoor unit so as to be troubled with a filter exchange work.
And, the filter has a function of filtering dust only, thereby being unable to deodorize the air.
Moreover, the related art fails to include a display unit displaying an operation status of the air conditioner, thereby being inconvenient for a user to be informed of the operation status of the air conditioner.
Meanwhile, the orifice 15 partitioning a space between the heat exchanger 5 and turbofan occupies a relatively large rectangular area to be easily distorted so as to interrupt the precise airflow inside the indoor unit.
Specifically, if an edge of the orifice 15 fails to be sealed precisely with the casing 1, the air blown through the turbofan 9 comes into leakage in part.
Besides, the blow outlets 11 are formed at four sides of the casing 1 and the area of the rear face of the casing 1 is equal to that of the front face, whereby a mechanical strength of the casing 1 is weak.
And, the casing 1 having a relatively large area of a back face is easily bent so as to be unable to support strongly components attached thereto.
Finally, blow louvers 14 are built in one body of the blow vanes 13 installed at the blow outlets 11 so as be heavy. Hence, a relatively heavy load is applied to the motor in order to drive the blow vanes 13.
Besides, when the blow vanes 13 are open, the air leaks toward a rear side of an outer surface of the casing. Hence, a flow of the air fails to be as designed.